Thursday, August 16, 2012

The kids and I went on a walk tonight. We walked up to Freedom gas station to get Pepperfest buttons before the "presale" price is over. Originally, I was going to ask Daddy to come with us and push one of the strollers but one of our friends called and said he could look at our van for us and that's way more important than silly Pepperfest buttons! I was racking my brain for how I would push two strollers...or make Gracie ride her bike (almost 2 miles, yeah right!)...or....Ugg! Then I remembered when Gracie was barely walking we bought a hiking baby backpack. We've never used it, but I was able to find it in the garage for our walk today.

My walking buddies.

I wasn't sure how JR would like the backpack. He's never really been in anything like it. He laid his head on the edge, right by my ear and sang for the majority of the walk. A sweet little baby melody. :)

I've had a lot of questions about our house since moving in, so I thought I'd start a series of posts showing what we've done so far. The house needed a lot of basic work before we could even move in. Every wall in the house was stripped, filled, sanded, and painted before we moved in. That process not only took about a month to accomplish, but also took pretty much all of our extra money. We haven't done much decorating besides the paint.

Our deck is one area that we are really happy with right now. Eventually we plan on resurfacing it, as the people before us used paint on it that is a funny tan color and is rubbing away on the floor. However, it's very comfortable as is. And, I must add, it is completely furnished by giving people in our lives!

Standing by the garage, looking into the deck

Daddy loves grilling. For his birthday in May, I decided I wanted to get him a nice grill. We looked at a few stores, and I showed him the one I really wanted to get and he said we should wait until we were actually in the house before we purchased anything. Good thing we did! Daddy was at his parents house one day when their next door neighbor approached him and asked if we would be interested in his "spare" grill for free. They do a lot of out door entertaining and it was too small for their needs. Behold; the EXACT grill I was going to buy for his birthday!

Standing on the deck, looking at the backyard.

I love the huge trees in our yard. The shade they provide is awesome. I can go outside with the kids on a 90 degree day and it feels more like 80. However, they are extremely messy. I was looking up at them today and noticing how very many leaves they have, and that they are starting to turn colors already. I'm not really looking forward to fall (although the kids will get to jump in the leaves for the first time ever, and I am VERY excited for that!). There is one big Maple in the backyard that shelters the whole yard. It's about three feet in diameter, at least.

Perfect Play-Doh spot!

One of my colleagues heard we were getting a house and approached me towards the end of the school year to see if I would be interested in their patio table set. It had a little bit of rust on it so they were going to replace it. Yes!! I was shocked that it is so nice! There was a sprinkling of rust on each of the chair arms and a little on the edges of the table. Daddy sanded them all down and painted a bit of Rust-O-leum on it. Good as new! It even has six chairs, and an umbrella. We haven't cracked out the umbrella yet because the tree does such a nice job providing shade.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

has been driving me crazy pretty much since we closed on the house. Daddy stopped by his parents' house on the way home from work and borrowed their hedge trimmers. After my run, I figured I was already all sweaty, why not add in an arm workout? And boy, was it an arm workout! Many of the branches in the middle I could only score with the trimmers. Then I had to bend them and break them off. Sorry, bush, but you were out of control!

In the center of the bush was this perfect (abandoned) nest. Gracie was in awe of it!

Trimmed!

It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's better. In a perfect world, I think I'd just remove it all together but we don't have the funds for that and there are many more important things to spend our money on before landscaping. I'd love to get rid of that weird stump by the bush too. What a strange place for a tree, and why leave a two foot stump?

Monday, August 6, 2012

Now that we are somewhat settled into our new house, I decided to give the kids a bit of fun. We got out some canvases and paint and painted in our front yard. Jerry and Bee started first, as Gracie was still napping.

Mom, this doesn't really taste good.

Bee finished one canvas and declared she was done. Upon getting out of the bath, she went straight outside and painted more. She just couldn't get enough, and ended up with three baths! Indecisive girlie!

Hard at work

Finally Gracie got up from her nap. She said she didn't want to paint, but after giving Bee direction for a while through the open window, she came outside and said she was ready to paint.